The Great Leonard Cohen
He's one of music's most understated icons, a cult figure; he is a Canadian treasure who has been around since the 1950s, first with his books of poetry and with his music since the 1960s.I had the pleasure of seeing the Godfather of Gloom as he is strangely dubbed in November 2013 and it was almost a religious experience.
I remember fist hearing Cohen's Famous Blue Raincoat from his 1971 album Songs of Love and Hate. Cohen starts the song with "It's four in the morning, the end of December" and finishes with "sincerely, L.Cohen." What happened between the salutation and end was lyrical magic and for those few minutes, I was on a journey with him and every time I hear the song I am on the same journey. I heard that song for the first time and thought, that's what music should sound like, where has this enigmatic man been my whole life?
His song Hallelujah is somewhat of a myth of its own and sadly sometimes people don't realise that Cohen's rendition is the original rather than Jeff Buckley's. That's the beauty of Leonard Cohen and his songs, they are boundless and don't rely on fashion or genre. You can't pinpoint a decade just by hearing a beat of one of his songs; each song is gargantuan and transcendental, no matter what generation or decade.
In the early days, before he embraced himself as a singer Judy Collins made his song Suzanne famous, while today his songs are continuously rebirthed by a new generation. Lana Del Rey sings his Chelsea Hotel 2, an ode to Janis Joplin and Cohen's tryst with her in the infamous hotel. The Civil Wars have also recreated Dance Me To the End of Love, then there's the predictable pool of renditions on reality television competitions.
Even today, Leonard Cohen is as polished and elegant as he was in his youth. It is this handsome elegance which made him stick out like a sore thumb during the 60s and 70s, where the music scene favoured the rebels and the unique, while Cohen was a privileged, middle-class Jewish Canadian. In fact Cohen was in his thirties when his first record Songs of Leonard Cohen was released and he only pursued music since being a poet and intellectual paid little.
The beauty of Cohen is he has never tried to be anything apart from himself and that is catalogued throughout his music and literature. In his song Bird on a Wire, Cohen sings, "I have tried in my way to be free" and this search for belonging is chronicled through his practice of his Zen Buddhism, with Cohen an ordained monk as well as practicing Jew. On that quest to be free he spent years in his earlier days living on the Greek island Hydra, where he wrote, often with women and there have been many women.
Many will be quick to dismiss Cohen's work as depressing or morose upon first hearing it and sadly that's the clichéd response to Cohen. In truth Cohen has openly admitted to battling depression since childhood, possible as a result of the surprising death of his father, when Cohen was aged nine. However to me and legions of Cohen fans including Nick Cave, his music is unlike anything you can ever hear. Yes it is dark, but there is a stark beauty and lyrical honesty in his words. His words are deep, raw and evoke an image which sticks with you. "My mirror twin, my next of kin, I´d know you in my sleep. And who but you would take me in a thousand kisses deep?" Cohen asks in A Thousand Kisses Deep.
Even today his voice is seductive, eloquently smooth and deep, like aged bourbon or the voice of charismatic prophet. Personally after listening to a Leonard Cohen record, I feel like I have spent some time in a place of worship, praying and hearing the prayers of others. That's the charm of Leonard Cohen, at times he is speaking straight to you and for those few minutes there's just you, him and a journey.
The themes of religion are always there, whether Christian, Jewish or Buddhist, they are there, just as Cohen encountered them on his own search for meaning and clarity. Jesus Christ and Joan of Arc are similarly figures who frequently appear in his songs and in his songs both are tortured and very human, perhaps like Cohen himself.
His latest offering Old Ideas, his first album in eight years was a welcomed surprise to Leonard Cohen fans as has his latest world tour. The songs are still as profound and weighty with the self-deprecating wisdom of an old man who has lived "like a sportsman and a shepherd, a lazy bastard living in a suit."
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